Franziska von Karma stood suspiciously in front of a long cardboard box laying on the floor, glancing over the label on the front. It proclaimed that its contents were that of an Artificial Christmassy Christmas Tree from a shop nearby and that it was most definitely artificial. Franziska, however, was confused.
Christmas trees are not this small! Well, they definitely are not in all the pictures that I've seen, so the size is most certainly an issue here.
This was Franziska's very first time celebrating Christmas- on her own, anyway- and she would not have done so if the combined efforts of her close friend Adrian Andrews and her little brother Miles Edgeworth had finally won her over. She didn't want to set up anything the wrong way, however, and so Adrian and Miles had both promised to help her for the next few days, today being Adrian's turn.
Adrian always found a way to help out and was a pleasure to be around. Franziska liked that.
Glancing quickly at the calendar which insisted that it was the 3rd of December, Franziska went back to her work, opening up the cardboard box to find several plastic branches clad in small, plastic needles to symbolise a classic Christmas tree. Realising that there were no decorations that came with the box, Franziska could only sigh in relief that Adrian had left a few boxes of ornamental baubles and tinsel on a comfy armchair stood in front of the fireplace before she headed out to the local convenience store.
Right. Time to put together this foolish contraption.
The instruction manual for the Artificial Christmassy Christmas Tree stated that there was a part longer than all the others and that was the trunk, so to speak; Franziska found it and stood it up in an instant. Child's play, she thought, reading the next page of the manual which informed her that the colour codes on the ends of the branches corresponded to the colour-coded slots on the trunk.
Supposedly an easy task, Franziska laughed in contempt and proceeded onward, grabbing the first branch and slotting it in.
The branch refused to fit.
Franziska tried it again, but it still would not stay in the slot, and so she checked the colour code on the branch- orange. Checking the side of the tree which she had put the branch in, she looked at the colour and saw that it was indeed orange.
Then why is the branch not-
Franziska then realised that there were numbers that corresponded to exactly which slot on which colour the branch would fit into. After a huff of frustration, Franziska thought about the most logical way she could piece the tree together, at last coming up with a plan.
She placed all the branches with the colour red into one pile, then those with orange, then those with yellow, blue and green into their own separate piles. There were still some remaining, she noticed, that had no colour at all- and so she looked about the tree for some sort of 'plain' colour area.
None could be found, so Franziska looked in the cardboard box, and discovered some small colour tags that had fallen off some of the branches- namely, those that were remaining from Franziska's piles.
Now extremely annoyed, she- by instinct- lashed out with her whip; unfortunately, it hit the tree, and it fell to the ground with a small thud- most of the attached branches falling off as well. With a cry of frustration Franziska decided to give up on the wretched tree for the moment, sit on the floor next to it and patiently wait for Adrian to return- however, she didn't have to wait long, as who should enter five minutes later but Adrian Andrews, her hands full of shopping bags and an amused expression on her face as she saw the tree.
"What happened?" Adrian asked, to which Franziska huffed and crossed her arms like an annoyed schoolchild. Adrian found that quite cute of her- but that was beside the point.
"This foolishly foolish tree has so many foolish complications to it! I can't believe how long it takes to put up this piece of plastic! I just don't- Adrian Andrews, stop laughing at me!"
Adrian had to put a hand to her mouth to stop her bout of laughter and avoid getting a harsh scolding from her friend- Franziska refrained from whipping her, for some reason, and it was truly a relief for Adrian. Pushing her glasses up her nose, she regained her composure and smiled warmly at Franziska, holding out a hand to lift her up which she gladly took.
"Would you like some help, Franziska?"
Franziska glanced at Adrian with a look of uncertainty in her eyes- Franziska prided herself on being perfect and needing absolutely no help at all to do things- but then nodded lightly, smiling weakly back.
"Yes, Adrian, I would like that very much. Let's just get this all over with…"